


an exception to the rule

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Gen, mentions of blood/head injury, not severe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26510689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: Maddie can hear the sound of her seven year old brother hyperventilating as he follows behind her, the tears already falling as he begs her not to tattle on him.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley
Kudos: 48
Collections: The Buckley Siblings One Shots





	an exception to the rule

“That’s… a lot of blood.”

Maddie glares at her brother, hand pressed against her head, as the blood seeps through her fingers, matting through her long hair, “Oh, you think?” The seven-year-old only looks at her with a mixture of concern and fascination, before he looks between his older sister and their house.

“Should I get mom?”

“No, you’ll get in trouble.” She groans, finally moving to stand up, gripping onto her little brother the moment she sways a little, “You’re an idiot.”

Evan is just staring at her with wide, blue eyes and she can already see the tears forming in them because both of them know that the amount of trouble he’s about to get into is unavoidable. “I-I didn’t mean to, I just—I have no control of where the ball goes when I-I hit it. I didn’t _aim_ for the back of your head.”

Being both a teenager and his older sister, Maddie is stuck between the desire to protect him and the desire to go running into the house to tattle on him. She just wishes her brother would accept the fact he’s just really not that good at baseball, mostly she wishes he had come to that conclusion _before_ he hit the ball into the back of her head when she was trying to walk into the house.

“Maddie? Maddie, I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell mom and dad, I-I didn’t—” The tears are fully falling down, his face paling even more so when she doesn’t respond and just continues to walk towards the house, hand still clutching at the back of her head. “Maddie!” The panic rises in his voice and she knows that he’s seven and he’s thinking about the fact he has his very first sleepover this weekend and he’s meant to go on a camping trip with the rest of the Buckley men the weekend after and if he’s grounded, then he’ll be left out. And Evan really hates being left out of anything.

The fourteen-year-old is more than willing to let him stew in his own panic and misery for a few more minutes though when she pushes the door to their house open. Her brother isn’t too far behind her and she can hear him practically hyperventilating but her attention is torn their mother, sitting at the dining room table with a perfect view of where they’re standing, seemingly consumed in the paperwork in front of her. “Mom?”

Perhaps it’s the pain in her voice that at least causes the woman to actually look up, and Maddie tries not to look surprised at the concern in her eyes when she’s practically sprinting over to them. To Maddie holding her bleeding head as Evan stands next to her sobbing, “Mommy—I—”

“I was practising my back tuck outside and I lost my balance.” It’s a lie, but at least it’s a believable one considering the amount of times she had been caught practising in the yard and consequently been warned by the eldest Buckley woman that she would get hurt one day.

Any concern that had been on her mother’s face is suddenly gone, replaced by a roll of her eyes when she yanks Maddie’s hand from her head and examines the wound, “Evan, stop crying. Do you see your sister sobbing and she’s the one bleeding? Just stop it.”

The words do nothing to alleviate his cries, but Maddie subtly reaches out a hand to brush her fingers to his cheeks, shooting him a small smile and a wink before he sniffs and rubs stubbornly at his eyes. “This is going to need stitches, I can’t believe you, Madeline. How many times have I told you?”

Maddie ruffles her brother’s hair when their mom walks away to grab her handbag, poking her tongue out at him as the woman mutters inaudible words to herself before she lets out a sigh. “I have work to do, I don’t have time to go running around after the two of you.”

“I can take myself to the ER, mom. We’ll be fine on our own.”

There’s an indignant look on her face as she ushers the two of them back out of the door, “What kind of mother would that make me look like?”

“A bad one?” Maddie can’t stop the smirk that appears on her face, feeling Evan’s hand in her own as he looks up at her with wide eyes and a quick shake of his head.

“Just get in the car, this is going to take all night.”

When she feels a small tug on her hand, just as their mom climbs into the driver’s seat of the car, Maddie looks down at her little brother with a smile on her face, “Why did you lie?” He whispers, “I thought you said lying was bad.”

She thinks about it for a second, until she lets go of his hand to bop his nose gently with her finger, “Because I’m your big sister, I’m an exception to the rule. Now get in the car before mom has a coronary.”

“I love you, Maddie.”

“I love you too, Evan.”


End file.
